1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing program, and an image processing method, and more particularly, to an image processing system that performs rendering for displaying or printing out a document, an image processing program for controlling the sequence of the rendering, and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a document is printed out, a certain application is used for displaying previews or thumbnails of page images formed by rendering the data of the respective pages of the document, so as to check the contents of the document or the printed result. With such an application, a particular page range can be specified by inputting a character string. For example, when a user wishes to preview a page image, the user inputs the corresponding page number in the form of a text.
Also, when conducting printing, a user can specify a page to be printed out, by inputting a character string on a print setting screen. In this case, not all the pages included in a designated document but only the data of a desired page is rendered and printed out.
When a page image is displayed as a preview or a thumbnail or is printed out as described above, not only numbers but also symbols such as a comma (,) and a hyphen (-) are generally used to specify a particular page range through an input of a text. For example, when a hyphen is interposed between two different page numbers, the pages that fall between the two page numbers written on both sides of the hyphen can be specified as a page range. Also, when a comma is interposed between page numbers, pages that are apart from each other can be designated.
There might be a case where a rendering process requires time, and a server/client web application is used to render and generate page images on the server side, and transmit the generated page images to a client. In such a case, a long period of time might be required before a process using page images is started, depending on the communication speed and congestion of the network. When a user specifies a page range, it is essential that the page range is identified as quickly as possible, and the standby time before the start of a process using page images is shortened. To realize that, methods of preferentially rendering a particular page before the other pages have been suggested.
For example, JP 2012-203738 A discloses an information processing apparatus that performs control so that converted data generated from a designated page in subject data is acquired before the other non-stored converted data in the converted data generated from the subject data, when an operation reception unit receives a page designation and the converted data generated from the designated page in the subjected data is not stored. This publication discloses that the standby time of a user can be shortened by acquiring the converted data generated from a designated page before the other converted data.
JP 2004-181961 A discloses a system including a print preview system that functions to receive the information corresponding to a request for a preview of at least part of a print job, access the information corresponding to the print job, and display a thumbnail graphic corresponding to part of the requested print job via a display device. This publication discloses that the time required before the start of preview display of a page a user wishes to check can be shortened by determining the start page and the end page to be displayed as previews before the pages of the document are scanned.
By the above mentioned conventional methods, a particular page range can be preferentially rendered if the particular page range is determined in advance. However, in a case where a particular page range to be designated by a user cannot be clearly determined, such as when the user is still inputting a text, the page to be preferentially rendered cannot be identified, and the standby time is not sufficiently shortened.
For example, in a case where there is a period of time between an input of a number and an input of another number or a symbol, if a symbol is to be input after the first number, the page identified by the first number is a page to be preferentially rendered, but the rendering of the page cannot be started unless the input is confirmed. If another number is to be input after the first number, it is not clear whether the page identified by the first number is a page to be preferentially rendered. Although at least the page corresponding to the number is considered to be a page to be preferentially rendered, the rendering of the page cannot be started unless the input is confirmed.
In a case where a number is input, at least the page corresponding to the number is a page to be preferentially rendered. By a conventional technique, however, the rendering is not started before the input is confirmed (or before an operation to determine a text input is performed). Therefore, the standby time before the start of a process (preview display, thumbnail display, or printing) using rendered page images cannot be shortened.